After turning in our applications in J.B. Van Hollen’s, several of us were hanging out in center of the ground floor. Charles Atlas was talking to a Capital Police officer, then later came over to me and said that the officer said that we could Open Carry in the Capitol starting on Nov. 1. We went back over the that officer and I challenged him saying that 941.235 prohibits firearms in a public building and Act 35 only amended that to allow licensees to carry and we just handed in our applications and have not received our CWL’s yet, so no, we cannot Open Carry in the Capitol today. He basically said I can think what I want but he knows. I said that the average gun rights activist knows the laws better than most LEO's. The discussion got deeper and he conceded that the DOJ says its illegal, but the DOA says that it is legal and the DOA has authority over the Capital and Capital Police.
Charles Atlas and I told GlockRDH and others talked about it. I approached the officer again and told him to his face that it is legal for an LEO to lie. That is when he started to squirm. It was obvious to me that he was trying to protect the lie. He started saying that if he was caught in a lie, he could be fired. I laughed rather sarcastically stating that he would NOT get fired.
Charles Atlas, GlockRDH and myself went to Sen. Grothmans office and spoke with Jolene Churchill, who called the Capitol Police Office and she was told that we could Open Carry as long as we did not go into any of the restricted areas like the Capitol Police Office, Supreme Courts chambers, and legislators offices that are posted.
The consensus amongst us was that the Cap. Police were trying to bait us(entrap us) inot open carry into the Capital that would be in violation of State Statute and use this situation to pressure DOA into posting the entire building.
The audio recording will tell a lot that Mlutz mentioned. I was joking and pulled out my audio recorder to get the officer on record, but then I showed in that it was not on. Later, he asked if I was recording and I showed him I was not saying that it goes on when I am armed and I am not armed. I am glad someone else had their audio recorder on.